Date: 29th April,2022, Time: 2.30 PM (Hybrid mode)
The council had organized a seminar on ‘Leveraging Benefits of UAE Trade Agreement for increasing Exports’ in Hybrid mode on 29th April,2022 at 2.30 PM in hybrid mode. The objective of the seminar was to help the members in understanding the various benefits of the India -UAE Trade agreement for increasing exports and the procedure of availing these benefits.
Key speakers:
• S Ramesh (Managing Director, Price Waterhouse & Co LLP)
• Kaustuv Sen (Principal, Price Waterhouse & Co LLP)
• Gautam Khattar (Principal, Price Waterhouse & Co LLP)
Attendees: The session was attended by over 110 participants and concluded after addressing their queries by representatives from Pwc with a vote of thanks by Ms. Rashmi Arora.
Key highlights of the seminar
Background
Ms. Rashmi Arora, Assistant Director(Economist) ,GJEPC had welcomed all the participants for the discussion on ‘ Leveraging Benefits of UAE Trade Agreement for Increasing Exports ‘ and provided a brief background related to the India -UAE agreement
India and UAE have signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) on 18th February 2022 with an aim to boost the merchandise trade between the two countries to US$ 100 billion over the next five years. The agreement will come into force on 1st May,2022 and is expected to generate a wide variety of benefits for Indian exporters in terms of free-market access for gems and jewellery products and other products in UAE market and procurement of raw materials at competitive prices in India.
UAE is a big market for Indian gem and jewellery exports and India exports around US$ 6-7 billion of gold jewellery and US$ 1-1.5 billion of cut and polished diamonds is exported to UAE. The council has played an instrumental role in the negotiations of the agreement and strongly recommended the elimination of tariffs on gold jewellery in UAE that earlier did not attract any duty. India has in return offered partial access of gold bars and jewellery with certain restrictions. An export complementarity exists between both the countries as India is exporting finished jewellery products and polished diamonds to UAE and importing rough materials i.e., gold bars and rough diamonds from UAE. At this backdrop, it is imperative to understand the benefits of the agreement for Indian exporters and the procedure of availing these benefits
Mr. S. Ramesh, Managing Director, Price Waterhouse & Co LLP, said, “CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) is a deep and full-fledged agreement. The complementarity and good relations between the 2 countries will aid to its growth and assisting in the process of import of gold to India and export of jewels to UAE. Trade Inputs like the gold and the jewels, and the Rules of Origin are the two most important aspects of the CEPA agreement along with the inbuilt provisions of Trade Remedies and Customs procedure. The CEPA agreement has led to an elimination of tariffs of 5 % on key gems and jewellery products such as gold jewellery ,silver jewellery , precious and semi-precious stones and cut and polished diamonds providing opportunity for Indian exporters to boost their exports to the country .India on the other hand has allowed reduction in import duty by 1 % on gold bars and jewellery imported from UAE up to 200 tonnes and 2.5 tonnes respectively in a phased manner over 5 years .CEPA would give a major boost to the exports as it is estimated to touch 10 billion dollars by 2023”.
He further added, “VAT has no connection with the FDA and only customs duties are charged. So, the government agency would certify what method one would use and there would be a certificate of origin issued based on which the benefits would be given”.
Mr. Kaustuv Sen, Principal, Price Waterhouse & Co LLP, said “The category of jewellery earning is about 60 % of the market in UAE. There are three important aspects-the India HSN (Harmonized System Nomenclature) which are deployed on the export items; the short narrative of what the product is being exported and the UAE HSN which is similar to that of India, but it is declared by importers in UAE at the point of filling the bill of entry in the UAE and the fourth aspect he talks about is the Rules of origin. I agree that this agreement would pave the way to increased exports.”
Mr. Gautam Khattar, Principal, Price Waterhouse & Co LLP, said, “The main objective of the agreement is that one should be able to go back to the original importer and establish that the goods have been imported from UAE as that would help one establish value addition using either direct or indirect methods, so the manufacturer needs to know the entire supply chain and the original manufacturer in order to get 5% benefit. So overall there should be larger consensus and transparency in the supply chain”.
The key points of discussion during the seminar were as follows: –
- Overview of India -UAE CEPA
- Overview of Gems and Jewellery Sector
- Rules of origin – Origination criteria
- Process to claim benefit – Certificate of origin
- Minimum information required for certificate of origin
- Key steps for exporters
The panellists then addressed the queries and doubts of the participants. Some of the queries include: –
- Can exporters avail benefit in a situation where it is difficult to trace the original import source such as the price of import, country of origin, and overseas supplier or operating through job work?
- Will the VAT also be waived off in the agreement?
- Will SEZ units have preferential advantage in the India UAE CEPA agreement?
- Can the manufacturer/exporter claim the benefit of CEPA in a situation where the exporter is not an importer?
The seminar ended with a vote of thanks by Ms Rashmi Arora, Assistant Director (Economist), GJEPC who thanked all the participants for joining the seminar.
For further details, you can view the seminar through this link-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdDKAQsc2eQ